BSP upsets Cong, Bishnoi calculations
Chandigarh, April 18
By winning over former MLA Zakir Hussein, the BSP has upset the calculations of both the Congress and the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) of Kuldeep Bishnoi as far as the Mewat area is concerned.

Water standoff with Delhi continues
Panchkula, April 18
The water dispute between Haryana and Delhi is unlikely to die down as the Delhi government has failed to respond to the suggestion put up by the state regarding setting up an effluent treatment plant in the territory of Haryana bordering the national capital.

Public transport revamp on cards
Panipat, April 18
Aimed at controlling increasing vehicular flow on state roads, including the national highways, the state authorities have chalked out various safety and regulatory measures.

Labour unrest far from over
Day after compromise, company staff greeted to taunts
Gurgaon, April 18
Labour crisis at an auto parts manufacturing unit stands far from resolved as a day after its agitating workers and its management reached a compromise, the issue is back into focus amid renewed allegations of workers’
harassment while on duty.

HSIIDC justifies demolition exercise
Gurgaon, April 18
The authorities of the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) today justified the demolition exercise carried out in Koh and Kasan villages as legally valid even as the affected persons protested against it.

Scores of colourful fish in the Brahmsarovar have become a centre of attraction for visitors to Kurukshetra.
Tribune photo by Ravi Kumar.

Threshing of Wheat
Power regulatory measures revised
Chandigarh, April 18
To ensure uninterrupted power supply for threshing of wheat, the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam has revised the power regulatory measures with immediate effect. Instructions have been given to field officers to supply fault-free power so as to avoid any inconvenience to farmers during the threshing operation.

Bid to tarnish my
image: Minister
Ambala, April 18
Transport and education minister Mange Ram Gupta has said that some politicians
are hatching a conspiracy against him to spoil his “clean image”.

Registration of servants must
Sonepat, April 18
“The police will take action under section 188 of the IPC against house owners who do not inform it about the identity of their servants and tenants. Taxi owners and taxi drivers have also been brought under the ambit of this section,” said SSP Navdeep Singh Virk
here today.

Working president of the HPCC Kuldeep Sharma (second from right) pacifies volunteers of the Pratima Raksha Samman Samiti who were protesting against the alleged seizure of photographs of martyrs in Karnal on Friday. Tribune
photo by Ravi Kumar

Labourer dies as tractor overturns
Gurgaon, April 18
A labourer died and seven others were injured when a tractor carrying building material overturned inside the basement of an under-construction building in DLF IT special economic zone (SEZ) opposite 32 milestone on the Delhi-Jaipur Highway here today.

Bypoll
Cong nominees by month-end: CM
Karnal, April 18
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said the party candidates for the coming three assembly byelections would be announced by the end of this month.

Chandigarh, April 18
By winning over former MLA Zakir Hussein, the BSP has upset the calculations of both the Congress and the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) of Kuldeep Bishnoi as far as the Mewat area is concerned.

Zakir is a son and political inheritor of one of the tallest Meo leaders Tayyab Hussein, whose support base cuts across the state boundaries to Rajasthan also. Zakir, who quit the Congress only recently, was admitted to the BSP by its supremo Mayawati in Delhi on April 10 last. At the same time, she announced his candidature from the revived parliamentary constituency of Gurgaon under the new delimitation of constituencies, on the basis of which the next Lok Sabha elections would be held.

Gurgaon was a Lok Sabha constituency till 1971, when Tayyab represented it. At one time even Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad remained an MP from here. However, under the 1975 delimitation process, the constituency was bifurcated and merged with Faridabad and Mahendragarh. Now, the Delimitation Commission has revived the Gurgaon constituency, by merging parts of the Mahendragarh constituency with that of Bhiwani.

Bishnoi had already announced the name of former Haryana minister Rao Narbir Singh as his party’s nominee for the Lok Sabha poll from Gurgaon before the Zakir factor emerged in that area. Though the Congress has not made any announcement regarding its candidate, union minister of state for defence production Rao Inderjit Singh, who is the sitting MP from Mahendragarh, is likely to be the party’s nominee from Gurgaon.

Both Narbir and Inderjit are prominent Ahir leaders. However, their mainstay, the Ahirwal, has been divided between Gurgaon and Bhiwani, reducing their strength considerably.

According to rough estimates, Gurgaon is likely to have the voter strength of about 12 lakh. Of these, about four lakh voters are Muslims (about 3.5 lakh Meo Muslims, the community to which Zakir belongs). Gurgaon, which is the only Lok Sabha constituency in the state to have two reserved assembly segments (Bawal and Pataudi) as its parts, has a Scheduled Caste population of about two lakh.

The BSP is quite confident that Zakir will be able to garner a vast majority of the Muslim and Scheduled Caste votes, besides what the party’s social engineering experiment would bring. This confidence is not misplaced, if one goes by the reaction in the opposition camp. Since the BJP is likely to renominate its former MP, Santosh Yadav, the BSP will have to be watchful to see if the INLD of Om Prakash Chautala fields a Meo candidate. In that situation, the INLD can cut into Zakir’s support base to some extent.

Panchkula, April 18
The water dispute between Haryana and Delhi is unlikely to die down as the Delhi government has failed to respond to the suggestion put up by the state regarding setting up an effluent treatment plant in the territory of Haryana bordering the national capital.

Haryana refusing to release more water to the national capital demanded that Delhi should take the responsibility of treating the water released by it after using it, as it was full of effluents.

The suggestion was made by the authorities from Haryana during a meeting convened by T.K. Nair, principal secretary to the Prime Minister, after the Supreme Court on January 23 asked the centre to try to resolve the water dispute amicably between Delhi and Haryana to ensure that the people of Delhi did not suffer a water shortage because of the reduction of water flow by Haryana to Delhi.

In the meeting, the authorities from Haryana, who had assured the centre to supplement the drinking water requirement of people in the national capital, declined to supply the water for non-essential use.

The state, which has merely 14 million acre feet (MAF) of water against the requirement of 43 MAF of water, cannot be denied of its right in the waters of Yamuna to keep the gardens of the capital green at the cost of the fields in the state, argued the authorities legitimising their stand for not releasing more water to the capital.

Moreover, it was pointed out in the meeting that Delhi was getting 495 cusecs of water for ensuring reverse flow of it into the river. As the water being released by Delhi was full of effluents, it was a bane for the residents of Haryana.

Financial commissioner (irrigation) R.N. Prashar said Haryana was at loss on two counts in the matter. First it was releasing up to 1,100 cusecs of fresh water to Delhi everyday with less than 2 BoD (Biological oxygen demand) which was being used even for the horticulture and industrial use in the national capital on the cost of the essential needs of its own people. In return, the state got effluents with more than 40 BoD in the shape of used water, as for ensuring reverse flow in the river Delhi got the credit of 495 cusecs of water, said Prashar.

To make this water reusable, it was suggested to Delhi that an effluent treatment plant could be set up and Haryana was ready to provide land for the project.

However, the cost of construction and recurring expenses should be borne by Delhi, he said.

Now, as the Delhi government had not shown any interest in the proposal mooted by the state, it would not be possible for Haryana to consider any unreasonable demand from them, said the financial commissioner.

Panipat, April 18
Aimed at controlling increasing vehicular flow on state roads, including the national highways, the state authorities have chalked out various safety and regulatory measures.

At a high-level meeting held yesterday, the state authorities agreed to enhance the public transport system, besides initiating punitive action to curb overloaded goods carriers.

The state police has also proposed to separate the traffic wing from the police to man the traffic in more effective manner. Besides a proposal to induct more than 600 new buses in the state roadways fleet, including air-conditioned carriers, the state authorities agreed to introduce more than five dozen low-floor buses for cities.

It is learnt that the officials emphasised to enhance and improve the public transport system to motivate the public to adopt it. As low-cost cars were expected to hit the roads soon, there would be a manifold increase in the volume of traffic, remarked an official.

Sources said the state transport authorities were eager to launch AC buses in public-private participation on intercity routes of Haryana. For the convenience of all age groups, the state had also proposed to include more than 60 low-floor buses for Panchkula, Rohtak, Hisar, Ambala and other cities.

Taking serious view of overloaded vehicles entering Haryana from seaport routes, the state authorities had decided to set up a computerised weighing machine (dharma kanta) at Jaisinghpura village on the Gurgaon-Jaipur NH-8.

The AIG (traffic) revealed that more such dharma kantas would be identified at different areas of the state to keep tabs on overloaded vehicles.

He said Dalal had also offered to provide police manpower to the secretary RTAs at the district level to combat the nuisance of overloaded commercial and passenger vehicles.

Gurgaon, April 18
Labour crisis at an auto parts manufacturing unit stands far from resolved as a day after its agitating workers and its management reached a compromise, the issue is back into focus amid renewed allegations of workers’
harassment while on duty.

Alleging this at a press conference here today, the state and district leadership of CITU announced that it would organise a convention here on April 20 to assess the post-compromise situation existing in the unit as well as to chalk out the future course of action. This would be done in coordination with district leaders of AITUC, the HMS, the Sarv Karamchari Sangh and other like-minded independent trade unions attending the convention.

State general secretary, CITU, Satvir Singh alleged that Automax workers who reported back on duty were being teased and taunted during woking hours about the “futility” of their protest as they got nothing but blows of lathis in the police action. This was a clear breach of trust reposed by the workers in the management that had assured no vengeful activity against any of them after reaching the compromise.

Moreover, there was no positive response from the
company as well as the district labour department authorities regarding contentious issues of the registration of the Automax workers union, withdrawal of unjustified transfer of its president as well as 16 casual workers outside Gurgaon. The CITU leader said the convention would deliberate on how to tackle the anti-workers policies of Automax as well as managements of other industrial units in Gurgaon and the nearby Dhareura.

Terming the police action as politically motivated, CITU legal adviser Rajender Pathak criticised the role of the SDM concerned in ordering the lathicharge on the protesting workers without any provocation. No warning was given to them to disperse and section 144 was imposed later to justify the action which was taken allegedly at the behest of the political bosses sitting in Chandigarh. He added that the action was pre-meditated and aimed at sending a message to workers’ unions across Haryana that they would be meted out the same treatment if they dared to raise their voice.

CITU leaders maintained that they did not intent disruption of production work as well as the law and order situation. That was why they advised the workers to report back on duty and cooperate with the district administration as well as Automax management in maintaining peace. They alleged that the local labour department authorities also failed to discharge their duty properly that flared up the situation.

Yamunanagar, April 18
Slow and less arrival of wheat in mandis (grain markets) of the district have caused worries among the government purchase agencies.

Till April 15, wheat arrival in mandis was less than one-seventh of the quantity it was during the same time in 2006 and one-third in 2007.

Sources said private traders were lifting wheat directly from fields at higher prices. Vagaries of weather had also caused damage to the wheat crop.

In 2006, the government purchase agencies had procured 34,874 metric tonnes of wheat from the 12 mandis of the district while the agencies had lifted 18,427 metric tonnes last year by April 15. However, this time only 4,459 metric tonnes (as per a release issued by the office of deputy commissioner) had been purchased by the agencies.

Shamsher Singh Tyagi, state general secretary of the Bhartiya Kisan Sangh said one of the major reasons behind the low arrival of wheat was low MSP. Private traders were approaching farmers in villages and paying them at least Rs 200 more per quintal. Besides, the traders were doing a favour to farmers by lifting wheat directly from their fields. A farmer besides getting more money by selling his produce to traders was also saving time, which otherwise he would have invested if he had sold wheat in a mandi.

Tyagi said farmers were expecting announcement of bonus on wheat and that was why a large number of them were yet to start reaping their standing crops.

An official in the agriculture department said moisture in the crop due to the recent rains was the reason behind the slow arrival of wheat in the mandis.

He said this year the total area of wheat had increased from the target. The agriculture department had targeted 70,000 hectares for wheat plantation. However, the plantation area increased by 2,000 hectares.

Gurgaon, April 18
The authorities of the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) today justified the demolition exercise carried out in Koh and Kasan villages as legally valid even as the affected persons protested against it.

Led by the area SDM, along with AGM, HSIIDC, at the IMT, Manesar, K.C. Sharma, the demolition squad involving around 100 policemen and two JCB amchines descended on these villages in the afternoon yesterday and demolished around 45-50 houses and temporary sheds belonging to villagers in a four-hour operation.

Sarpanch of Koh village Rohtash Singh claimed that they were not given any prior information about it.

The action followed rejection of a writ petition filed by the affected persons even as they said a review application was pending before the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Sharma said he was not aware of the said application but deferred the demolition after a copy of it was given to him by the affected persons.

The land in question, measuring 162 acres, has been acquired by the HSIIDC for industrial purpose. The villagers who had built houses on this land were informed in writing through the sarpanch of Koh village to vacate it before April 15. Around 300 villagers today approached Gurgaon DC Rakesh Gupta who told them to see him on Monday.

Chandigarh, April 18
To ensure uninterrupted power supply for threshing of wheat, the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam has revised the power regulatory measures with immediate effect. Instructions have been given to field officers to supply fault-free power so as to avoid any inconvenience to farmers during the threshing operation.

Stating this here yesterday, a spokesman for the nigam said the electricity supply would be restricted to industrial and independent industrial feeders from 5 am to 7 am and 7 pm to 10.30 pm. However, 10 per cent of normal load would be given for lighting purpose. During this period, the HT industrial consumers would observe peak load restrictions, he added. He pointed out that it had been decided to supply power to public waterworks and agricultural tubewells in two groups. The first group in Karnal and Panipat districts would be fed from 12 midnight to 5 am and the second group from 7 am to 12 pm. The first group of consumers of Ambala, Panchkula, Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra and Kaithal districts would be fed from 11 pm to 4 am and the second group from 12 noon to 5 pm. The spokesman said the first group of tubewell consumers in Rohtak, Jhajjar and Sonepat districts would be fed from 12 midnight to 5 am and the second group from 7 am to 12 noon.

Ambala, April 18
Transport and education minister Mange Ram Gupta has said that some politicians
are hatching a conspiracy against him to spoil his “clean image”.

Talking to mediapersons here today, he said Ajay Chautala had alleged that one of his close relatives was selected for the post of naib
tehsildar, while it was proved wrong.

He said he would file a complaint in court against Ajay Chautala. Similarly, it was also alleged that one of his relatives was allotted an industrial plot in Bhiwani, which had no truth, he added.

Referring to Bhajan Lal, he said Bhajan had committed a blunder by forming his own party.

Asked whether he was in favour of the proposal of Arjun Singh that Rahul Gandhi could prove a successful Prime Minister, he said he was of the view that youth leadership like Rahul Gandhi could strengthen the party in a better way.

Refuting
the charges of some teachers’ unions, he said there was no proposal to
privatise education in the state.

He clarified that the government was considering to offer some sick primary schools to a private society in the interests of students as was the case in Rajasthan and Punjab. He said the administrative control of such schools would remain with the government.

Sonepat, April 18
“The police will take action under section 188 of the IPC against house owners who do not inform it about the identity of their servants and tenants. Taxi owners and taxi drivers have also been brought under the ambit of this section,” said SSP Navdeep Singh Virk
here today.

He said the district magistrate had issued orders under section 144 of the CrPC making it compulsory for the owners to inform the police about the servants within seven days after employing them. The owners were required to give full details of identification, including address, mobile number, photo and fingerprints, at their respective police stations. Taxi owners who engaged drivers were also required to furnish details at police stations.

In the light of incidents of hired taxis being looted, those in charge of the taxi stand had been asked to record the names of persons hiring taxis and also verify these, the SSP said.

He said violation of the orders would invite criminal proceedings. Violators could be punished with a fine of Rs 200 to 1,000 or imprisonment up to six months or both, he added.

Gurgaon, April 18
A labourer died and seven others were injured when a tractor carrying building material overturned inside the basement of an under-construction building in DLF IT special economic zone (SEZ) opposite 32 milestone on the Delhi-Jaipur Highway here today.

In protest, a large number of workers blocked traffic on the highway and pelted stones on the vehicles passing by. The blockade lasted for more than an hour and traffic got disrupted.

Senior police officers of Gurgaon reached the spot and the injured were immediately rushed to various hospitals.

Joint efforts were made by the police and DLF officials to extricate the injured buried under the material.

The deceased identified as Teenkuli hailing from West Bengal died in Paras Hospital where he was brought in a critical
condition.

The other injured have been identified as Jaiprakash Mahato, Madan
Mahato, Ulakh Mandal, Malu Skiekh, Anil and Malik Ali.

Ambala, April 18
INLD senior leader Abhay Chutala said the party would announce its candidates for Adampur, Indri and Gohana on Saturday.

Talking to mediapersons here today, he said the meeting of the executive committee would be held at Delhi on Saturday where the candidates would be finalised. He said the candidates would be finalised as per the aspirations of the party workers. He disclosed that prize hike, law and order situation and the electricity would be the main election issues of his party. He claimed that the INLD would win all three seats in the byelections.

Jhajjar, April 18
A youth was shot dead by three persons after a heated exchange of words over money in Asaudha village in the district today. The victim, Ranbir, of Bahrana village had come to meet Yashwant, who reportedly owed him about Rs 2 lakh after he stepped out of partnership in a business of JCB machines in Pithoragarh in Uttar Pradesh. Sources said Yashwant, Manjeet and Ranbir were partners in the business and two of them decided to pull out after Yashwant agreed to pay Rs 4.85 lakh to them. Yashwant called up Ranbir yesterday to collect the money today. They met at the residence of Rishiraj, a relative of Ranbir, to settle the issue where some argument ensued among them in which Yashwant fired thrice at Ranbir. He was rushed to the civil hospital where he died later.